Roku Just Found Another Way to Cram Ads Into Your Streaming Time

Money doesn’t make the world go ’round, but ads do. They exist in just about every corner of our lives, and that goes double for the internet. Well, if you think that watching content on Roku would give you a break, you’d be mistaken. According to several users, Roku is experimenting with showing ads on the pause screen.

It’s important to emphasize that this is a test that’s currently going on. So, chances are that you won’t see these ads just yet. We don’t know how long it will be before Roku decides to make this an official feature. While we can’t say for certain that the company will push this to the public, it seems likely.

Roku is experimenting with ads on the pause screen

Several users have come to the forefront to vent their frustrations with Roku. One user posted a screenshot showing an ad playing over a show on Discovery+. It’s a static ad that takes up about a third of the screen. At first, it seemed possible that this was just an ad provided by Discovery+ and not Roku. However, that’s likely not the case, as other users have reported ads across different apps. So, you should expect ads to pop up if you’re using other apps like Netflix.

The next ad popped up on another app. It looks a bit different from the ad above, as it doesn’t stretch from the top of the screen to the bottom. It still takes up about a third of the screen, and it also popped up when the content was paused.

What makes this worse is the fact that it doesn’t matter if the user is paying for the ad-free version of a streaming service. They’re still subject to seeing ads. This means that users aren’t even safe from ads when paying. While these ads are only visible when you pause your content, the fact remains that Roku is still finding ways of squeezing ads into the experience.

Also, the company has been working on technology that lets it detect when content is paused, no matter what device the user is using. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re using a gaming console, computer, mobile device, or Roku streaming stick. It will be able to tell when the content is paused. We know that this change will annoy users when Roku expands it.